IV470 - March 2014

IV 470 PDF magazine available to download

The second round of the lcoal elections in France on Sunday 30 March confirmed the trends seen in the first round on 23 March, as outlined in this article from l’Anticapitaliste (weekly newspaper of the NPA) of 27 March 2014.

“We condemn the co-option of the question of women’s emancipation by neo-liberal forces through the de-contextualized celebration of Women’s Day as another opportunity to further the neo-liberal development agenda.” Awami Workers’ Party’s General Secretary Farooq Tariq started his statement on Women’s Day with this powerful line.

The political space of Pakistan has taken turns for the worst over the years. There is an ever increasing influence of Islamists who sell religion to gain power. Increase in their influence means that liberal and progressive elements are losing power, if they ever had any. Political scene is dominated by right wingers, be it mainstream parties like PML-N, PTI or religious parties such as JI and JUI-f. As a result the militancy has surged in Pakistan whereas plurality is taking a steep decline. One of the hallmarks of right wing dominated political systems is always a misogynistic attitude. Same is the case in current political setup of Pakistan where the space is shrinking for the women.

To commemorate the three years of their uprising, the Syrian revolutionaries reminded the world that it should be included in the processes of the region, giving Friday, March 14 the slogan: “This is a popular revolution, not a civil war! “. Despite the killings and massive destruction caused by the Assad regime on the one hand, and the oppression of Islamic reactionary forces on the other, the Syrian people continue to struggle for its initial objectives: democracy: social justice and the refusal of sectarianism.

An interview with Chilean Marxist economist Rafael Agacino. Interview conducted by Franck Gaudichaud

Interview with Marco Alvarez, an activist with Libres del Sur. The interview was conducted by Franck Gaudichaud

The Arab Spring arrived in winter 2010, close to Europe; in the countries located on the other side of the Mediterranean. Four years later, we see that the springtime of the peoples is not solely an Arab phenomenon. Now in winter it has also erupted in Europe, although for now in the external periphery of the European Union. We probably did not recognise to what point the process of capitalist integration in Europe contributed to the explosive accumulation of tensions in its near but extra-European periphery. This is still truer now in its nearer European periphery. The link this time was direct, clearly visible: initially, the conflict broke out in Ukraine around the question of adhesion to the EU. This was the first slogan which began to gather the crowds, which gave birth to a mass social movement and which led to huge upheavals including the threat of war. Not a civil war as in Libya or Syria – although that was expected and incited in Russia and in all the propaganda networks linked to it around the world – but an international war.

This article is the introduction to a series of articles covering different aspects of the situation in Chile today. The other articles and interviews will be published as they become available.

Nasserism, by far, is the main form of progressive political consciousness that one can find in Egypt, when it takes the form of nostalgia, not for military rule, but for social benefits, jobs, agrarian reform, democratisation of education, and the national dignity of Egypt as incarnated and embodied by Nasser. Interview : 14 February 2014.